Irene Gilbert (fashion designer)

[4][5][6][7][8] Ireland's first couturier, she was a member of the "Big Three" Irish fashion designers, along with Sybil Connolly and Raymond Kenna/Kay Peterson.

[2][6] She was the first woman to run a successful fashion business in Ireland, operating out of a shop on St Stephen's Green on the southside of the city.

[9][2][11] Gilbert attended Alexandra College, after which she spent a short amount of time at a Belgian finishing school.

[12] Gilbert's career in the fashion industry began when she ran a dress shop on Wicklow Street in Dublin.

[2] She then went to London to train under a court dressmaker, before returning to open a hat shop on Dublin's North Frederick Street in the late 1940s.